Well OT - Online hotel booking gone wrong

[John]

I posted this in uk.legal.moderated earlier this afternoon but knowing the wealth and breadth of knowledge washing around in here I thought I'd crave a boon and ask your opinions as well :o)

Not sure if this is a travel industry thing, or a distance selling thing, or whatever but I'm hoping that some kind soul here may be able to help.

On 11th October we used

to book four hotel rooms and the room rate given was a grand total of 880 GBP (110 GBP per room per night, for two nights). Gtahotels.com trade in Euro's as their base currency and at that time they quoted an exchange rate of 1 EUR = 0.79174 GBP.

As you can see in this picture here

their system appears to be converting incorrectly as they say we owe them 1260 EUR, which is the equivalent (at their quoted exchange rate) of 998 GBP and not the 880 GBP quoted (which would be 1112 EUR).

We ring the helpline and speak to a foreign-sounding person who tells us that there is a technical problem with the website. She advises us to complete the transaction because, if we wait for the problem to be sorted the rooms may no longer be available, and she will refund the difference to my credit card later - so we do.

We also follow this up with an email to the person concerned and ask for the refund to be applied as soon as possible, but hear nothing. Incidentally, that person no longer works there - or so the manager told me yesterday.

Yesterday (12 Nov, and four weeks after we made the booking), my credit card statement arrives and an entry states "Gtahotels.Com, Lefkose, 1,260 EUR, Turkey."

So, I call the helpdesk again and escalate it to a manager, following up with email confirmation, and he promises to look into it.

This morning I get an email reply from them and they are saying that the conversion calculations are correct - the actual problem was with the room rates quoted. They say that the room rate was supposed to be 124.75 GBP per night (instead of the quoted 110) which gives the 998 GBP (1260 EUR) that they have (in their eyes, correctly) charged us and so we are not going to get a refund.

OK, I know it is only an extra 30-quid per room over the two-night stay, but given the current economic situation, that's not good. None of us can really afford to be making this trip anyway really. We're all pushing ourselves because it's a milestone birthday for our dad, and for various medical reasons he may not be around much longer.

If it helps, I found this on their website:

• Gtahotels.com is accredited by the travel industry and is a proud to be member of IATA, ASTA and TURSAB. *

Are we stuck with paying the extra or is there something I can do to get the rooms for the original quoted price?

TIA,

John.

[Colin Wilson]

If you have a copy of the original order page showing the lower prices, initiate a chargeback via the credit card, and provide them with the costs you expected to be charged.

(other than that, refer to the answers to the same message on uk.legal)

[John]

By 'eck Colin, that was quick :o)

Have to confess that I don't know what a chargeback is as I've never had to do one before. If you mean get a refund and go elsewhere, gtahotels have actually said that they are willing to give a full refund back to my card if we don't want to pay the higher price.

Fact is, like I said, for medical reasons our dad may not be around much longer and we do want to make this trip (it's going to be the last one he ever makes) even if we have to pay the higher price. I was just wondering if we have some sort of legal/moral recourse to get it at the lower quoted price or is it just like a mispriced item in a supermarket, where they may or may not honour it?

TIA,

John

[Andrew Gabriel]

For future reference, never allow hotels or any foreign business to do the currency conversion before charging to your card. Always have them charge in local currency and have the card company do the conversion. Otherwise you will be ripped off by the local merchant services provider with terrible rates (which includes a commission payback to the merchant for managing to persuade you to use their terrible rates).

[NOSPAMnet]

Chargebacks are used where a transaction paid for by a Credit Card ( not usually a Debit Card but Visa Debit Cards might be included) is disputed and the amount paid by the card is £100+ These links might help explain

to contact your CC company and explain the situation and see what they say .As has been said if you have a screencap of the amount originally shown that would help .

[Roger Mills]

And also, whenever you have to pay for anything in a currency other than Sterling, use a Nationwide credit card - 'cos they don't charge you any commission on the currency conversion.

[John]

Thanks very much for all your replies guys, your help is appreciated.

John.

[John]

Bad form to reply to one's own post etc., but I just thought I'd let you know that they sent an email this morning saying that they have refunded the difference and it'll appear on my credit card statement shortly :o)

John.

[NOSPAMnet]

Good result !!!